Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Tuesday: But ... But That's Church!

Reevaluating the non-profit status of certain of UPMC's properties may or may not pay off in the end -- but refusing to refinance billions of dollars of UPMC debt sounds like just the ticket. These County Council Bucs are playing hardball and I love it. (P-G, Team Effort; Trib, Tim Puko)

Oh and speaking of which, that zoning issue is not getting any less emergent. If there's one thing I can't abide its defiant arrogance. Would UPMC violate a mayoral stop work order? Would they cross a police barrier? (P-G, Edit Board)

You know, unless they're planning on erecting an LED or putting one of their conventional billboards smack on the church building itself, I'm fine with this. (P-G, Diana Nelson Jones; Trib, Matthew Santoni)

The West Pittsburgh Partnership cannot shake its reputation for secrecy and self-dealing -- of course, a great many CDC's have those reputations, and quite deservedly -- but Councilwoman Smith is linking the acceptance of CBDG money to a presumption of transparency (I assume that would also apply to community Weed and Seed meetings!) and she is trying to foster an alternative for West End neighborhoods. (C-P, Charlie Deitch)

5 comments:

Bram - It's important to know that the county makes big money from handling UPMC refinancing and they could easily go elsewhere. McCullough's an idiot if he tries to block this refinancing deal and we, the taxpayers, are the losers.

$176 K annually. Not "big money", but nothing to sneeze at these days.

What about McCullough's notion that this could start a more generalized financial boycott? The excuse "If we don't do it, someone else will" is used to justify a lot these days (I'm thinking development grant pass-thoughs as in Walnut Capital and the W. Pgh. Partnership).

I'm not clear that they're going to tear it down -- just use the land outside of it. Offhand I wouldn't be in favor of a tear down.

Although to be perfectly honest, you can't swing a dead cat in this town without hitting a cultural and historic church building. We can't turn them all into microbreweries that serve designer pierogies.

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